Celtics need to take aggressive approach

Wednesday

May 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 28, 2008 at 12:41 AM

So far down the playoff road, with so much at stake, it almost seems impossible. How can any team in the Eastern Conference finals actually come out flat? How does one team raise its level of aggression and the other fail to match it? How can the hunter and the hunted change roles so dramatically from one game to the next?

Scott Souza

So far down the playoff road, with so much at stake, it almost seems impossible.

How can any team in the Eastern Conference finals actually come out flat? How does one team raise its level of aggression and the other fail to match it? How can the hunter and the hunted change roles so dramatically from one game to the next?

"The way I looked at that game - and I saw it early on - was that they had a different sense of urgency than us," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers of Monday night's Game 4 loss at the Palace.

"I thought last night we lost our guard a little bit," agreed Kendrick Perkins, perhaps a notable exception to the team rule in Game 4. "I thought we were cool the whole game. I don't think we had the same energy level and focus as we had in Game 3."

It didn't take an NBA coach, player or network analyst to notice it. At the start of Game 3, the Celtics took a Pistons team coming off a road win with a chance to take control of the best-of-seven series and rendered it mostly a helpless spectator. Then in Game 4, rather than build off their advantage from two nights earlier, the Celtics were simply trying to hang on for their chance to steal the game late.

Now tied at two games apiece, it's becoming clear that the more aggressive team in tonight's Game 5 (TD Banknorth Garden, 8:30 p.m.) will have a massive advantage.

The problem is making sure that team is yours.

"(Detroit coach) Flip (Saunders) was complaining after they won Game 2 that they came back in Game 3, and though they said they were ready, he didn't see it," Rivers said. "I felt that way (Monday) night. We wanted to win the game, but we didn't act like it as far as the energy and toughness.

"Some of it, let's be honest, is mentality - mental toughness. If they are going to bump you, bump them back. If they are going to foul you, foul them back. I just thought they had the upper hand (in Game 4). They were the first-strike team and we were the retaliators. We were never the instigators."

Rivers said he had no indication that would happen. He liked the crispness at shootaround. He liked the feeling in the locker room. Then the game started and the Celtics played like they'd just been sucker punched before the opening bell.

"You could see it in their body language," the coach said. "You can't allow them to deny you catches, and push you off the block. Half our posts were like halfway between the block and the 3-point line. That can't happen."

This series has shown there is no time to warm up to the task. In Game 1, the Celtics blitzed the Pistons for the first eight points of the game and went on to a surprisingly easy victory. In Game 3, Boston scored 11 in a row to start the game and Detroit took until the fourth quarter to recover. In Game 4, it was the Pistons with 10 straight out of the gate and the outcome was all too predictable.

"The team that has gotten off first has been able to get the lead and maintain it," Paul Pierce said following yesterday's film session and shootaround. "It's important for us at home to get off to better starts than we have (going back to the Cavaliers series), so we don't find ourselves in a hole.

"It's the defense, it's the hustle plays. They came out diving for loose balls and making all the energy plays. That's what really got them going. We've got to see that and go out there and do all those things from the jump."

Doing it night after night has become the issue for both teams.

"You can't get complacent," said P.J. Brown, a veteran of 98 career playoff games over 14 years. "You can't look at the score. You can't look at where you're at as far as whether you're winning a series or behind in a series. You've got to bring the same consistent effort every moment you are out on the floor. It's easy to say it. But it sometimes settles in and we don't handle it real well."

The Celtics are now the ones seemingly needing the victory on their homecourt as opposed to the team that would simply like to have it.

That alone should be enough to inspire. Whether it does could make all the difference tonight.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.